Method and device for inserting a plurality of individual sheetlike forms of administration in a dispenser by forming a multilayer pile

ABSTRACT

A process for introducing a plurality of segregated sheet-like administration forms into a dispenser under formation of a multilayered stack for individually dosable removal, with sheet-like tapes wound-up on rolls being present as starting material, utilizes the following steps. In a first step, a number of sheet-like layers of said tapes, which number corresponds to the stack, is simultaneously drawn from a plurality of rolls. In a further step, the individual tapes are united, using guide means, to form a multilayered strand, which in yet another step, is drawn forward to a cutting station where one length of stack is severed at a time, and wherein a length segment of the multilayered strand corresponding to the stack is substantially in the dispenser prior to being severed from a remainder of the multilayered strand by the cutting device.

This is a Divisional Application of application Ser. No. 09/622,562,filed Sep. 20, 2000, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,659,442.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to a process, as well as a device, forintroducing a plurality of segregated sheet-like administration formsinto a dispenser under formation of a multilayered stack forindividually dosable removal, with sheet-like tapes, wound in coils,being present as starting material. The administration forms may forapplication thereof contain therapeutic or cosmetic orfood-technological products.

Flat-shaped administration forms intended for use in the oral region andon the mucous membranes of the mouth are known. Thus, U.S. Pat. No.3,444,858 (1969) describes medicament strips on the basis of agelatinous material.

Furthermore, proposals to use such sheets outside the medical field areknown. In EP 0 216 762 there is disclosed a water-soluble sheet ofstarch, gelatine, glycerine or sorbite, which is coated by means of aroll coater. It is mentioned in this document that such dosage forms canalso be manufactured, for example, for chemical reagents, flavours andthe like.

On the market, administration forms with single-unit dispensers madefrom plastics material have been available since about 1995 and havebecome established in the fields of application of cosmetics and sweets.In this regard, mention is made here of the product by Nisshin, Japan.The single-unit dispensers contain stacks of superimposed sheet sectionswhich permit the individual removal of the respective upper piece ofsheet after opening of an opening lip.

The technical solution to the task of producing and packaging suchstacks of sheet-like starting material is, however, difficult. Theliterature provides no practicable instructions for their manufacture.Only U.S. Pat. No. 4,180,558 describes the stacking of edible webs,which are, however, laminated together one upon another at their edgesand which therefore are unsuited for the aforementioned mode ofapplication.

Since such sheet-like administration forms tend to become staticallycharged owing to their small weight per unit area, e.g. between 10 and50 g/m², and since the surfaces must be adapted so as to be slidable forready removal of the webs, it is only with great difficulty and greatexpenditure of time that one succeeds in the accurately positionedcutting and superimposing of the sheet sections.

Observing the manufacturing techniques in industrial fields such as themanufacture of paper or the packaging of plastics bags does not provideany practicable suggestions for solving the problem. Although U.S. Pat.No. 4,070,014 describes the formation of stacks from two different typesof paper in partially overlapping arrangement with the aid of vacuumsuction transfer rolls, this technique, like the technique for stackingpaper known also from U.S. Pat. No. 5,348,527, describes a comparativelytime-consuming process involving individual cuts from a roll andindividual deposition on a stack.

U.S. Pat. No. 4,406,650 describes the formation of a web of paper from aroll, said web being folded in a zig-zag configuration and from which,by means of cutting, there results a stack. A disadvantage of thisapproach are the cuttings of the material. If the upper and bottom facesof the web have different structures, or in the case of undulation, itis not possible to stack the individual sheets with their original upperside facing upwards.

Starting from the aforementioned state of the art, it is the object ofthe present invention to provide a process and a device of the kind inwhich a plurality of administration forms are introduced into adispenser as a stack of sheets which, while avoiding the aforementioneddisadvantages and difficulties, enables the introduction into adispenser of individually dosable sheet-like administration forms into adispenser in a precise manner and at high process speeds and underformation of a multilayered stack, with sheet-like tapes, wound-up incoils, being present as starting material.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

This object is achieved according to the invention in a process in whicha multilayered strand is formed by equal-sided superimposing of theindividual webs of the sheet-like intermediate product and employingguide means, jointly crosscutting the resultant strand and filling adispenser, wherein the administration forms at the time of cross-cuttingare arranged substantially within the dispenser, having been shifted tothat position.

With advantage and in a surprisingly simple procedure, the stack isformed in an exact manner by simultaneous unwinding of a plurality ofsingle rolls of the sheet-like intermediate product, superimposing ofthe individual webs, jointly cross-cutting the resultant multiplelaminate strand and cutting the stacks into lengths, and which isconveyed into the dispenser. With great advantage, the process accordingto the invention is suitable for exact operation at high speed.

The intermediate product of the narrow rolls provided for this purposeconsists, for example, of about 20 to 1000 m long, wound-up individualwebs having the width of the product, which webs can be produced bymeans of roll cutting from an original broad width material. In thesimplest case, a number of narrow rolls corresponding to the number ofsheet pieces per dispenser is, to this end, fixed freely rollable onaxles in the vicinity of a stack to be manufactured.

The rotation and unwinding directions of the rolls are preferably thesame, and the material is drawn and guided jointly from all of the rollsby means of pulling devices known to those skilled in the art. Theresultant multiple laminate strand is then fed to a cross-cutting deviceunder control and leveling of the lateral edges, behind whichcross-cutting device, the dispenser which is to be supplied is disposedin an open state.

The narrow rolls used may be of almost any geometry. Good results can beobtained with roll widths between 5 and 40 mm. The length of the coiledmaterial should be at least about 20 m, preferably more than 500 m, perroll in order to avoid frequent interruption of the operation. Unitingtwo or more tapes in advance and simultaneous winding or unwinding ispossible, but frequently leads to difficulties when many layers arebeing wound. Surprisingly, it has proved impossible to unwind a laminateconsisting of eight or more such sheet layers in a controlled processsince those laminate elements of the sheet strips which lie on the outerradius slightly longer than the inner laminate elements. When unwindingthe rolls, in the case of more than four laminate layers this would leadto diverging of the webs and thus to an interruption of the process.

For this reason, winding and unwinding of rolls having few, for example,up to four laminate elements, is preferably utilized.

The type of dispenser is of no significance to the application of thepresent invention. Dispensers of plastics material or cardboard can befilled without problems. The opening side may, in the case ofrectangular sheet sections, be at the narrow side, in which case thepre-cut narrow rolls have the width of the small side length of therectangle.

If the narrow rolls are, however, configured in the later longitudinaldimension of the sheet sections, the opening side of the dispenser is onone of its longitudinal sides.

In the case of two-piece dispensers it would be expedient to primarilyfill a bottom part, for example, configured in the shape of a drawer,and subsequently to place the top part thereon. It is also possible,however, to fill half-opened dispensers. Also, it is possible to fillsealing bags, which, especially in the case of a peelable configuration,can be used as a dispenser, for instance by placing the cut stack on thebottom web of an advancing sealable packaging material web, andsubsequently, after feeding of the upper web of the packaging material,sealing the resultant bag.

Details, features and advantages of this invention will become apparentby way of example from the following explanation with reference to theaccompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic operational view of an embodiment of theinvention;

FIG. 2 is a schematic operational view of another embodiment of theinvention;

FIG. 3 is a schematic operational view of a further embodiment of theinvention; and

FIG. 4 is a schematic operational view of a still further embodiment ofthe invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The device for introducing a plurality of individual film-shapedadministration forms into a dispenser under formation of a multilayeredstack 9 for individually dosable removal comprises according to FIG. 1an indefinite number (depending on the number of layers) of rolls 1 a to1 h with active substance-containing tapes 10 wound thereon.

Said tapes 10, upon being unwound, travel at different angles to thehorizontal to guide rolls 2 and pass between said rolls, with the tapes10 being combined in the process to a multilayered strand 8. Strand 8 isgripped by a pair of conveying rolls 3 and drawn to a cutting device 4.Having reached the end of the transport path, there is severed from thestrand 8 by means of the cutting device 4 one multilayered stack 9 at atime, consisting of loose administration forms superimposed upon eachother in exact alignment, and filled into a dispensing container 5,which is held ready, after the dispenser 5 having previously beenautomatically brought to the filling position by means of a conveyordevice (not shown). In the process, the dispenser 5 is loaded with atleast one stack 9. Depending on the material and on the task to besolved, a dispensing container 5 may also be loaded successively with aplurality of stacks 9. The loaded container is then transported by meansof the conveyor device 11.

Turning now to FIG. 2, an alternative packaging approach in accordancewith the invention is depicted. As mentioned earlier herein, it ispossible to fill sealing bags 24 which can be used as a dispenser, forinstance, by placing the cut stack 9 on a bottom web 22 of an advancingsealable packaging material, and subsequently, after feeding of an upperweb 23 of the packaging material, sealing the resultant bag 24. Thus,the sealable packaging material serves as a dispensing container inplace of the particular dispensing container 5 of the embodiment ofFIG. 1. Advantageously, the sealable bags 24 can be peelable. Aremainder of operation of the embodiment of FIG. 2 is the same as thatof FIG. 1.

Drawing of the tapes 10 from their rolls 1 is advantageously supervisedoptically such that when a tape end appears, the work process isstopped. FIG. 3 shows means for optical supervision 21 which are eachlocated in a position suitable for detecting an appearing end of thetape. It is noted that, for the sake of clarity and to simplifyillustration, only three rollers 1 a, 1 d and 1 g are depicted.

According to another aspect of the invention, two or more tapes arewound on a single roll. This is depicted in FIG. 4, wherein roll 1 i isshown to have two tapes 20 wound thereon. In such arrangement, top andbottom faces of the two (or more) tapes face in common directions,respectively. It is noted again that only three rollers in total aredepicted for simplification purposes.

The process and device in accordance with practice of the invention aresurprisingly simple, they can be realized in a cost-effective manner,and offer an ideal solution to the task set at the outset.

1. A method for the production of individual administration forms,arranged as a multilayered stack, from individual tapes, comprising: a)arranging said individual tapes into a multilayered strand having aleading end; b) aligning and transporting said multilayered strand to across-cutting device, such that said leading end of said multilayeredstrand is advanced beyond said cross-cutting device; c) positioning anempty, pre-opened dispenser having an open side in a filling positiondownstream of said cross-cutting device, such that said open side ofsaid dispenser faces said leading end of said multilayered strand; d)shifting said leading end of said multilayered strand substantially intosaid empty, pre-opened dispenser; e) after shifting said leading endsubstantially into said dispenser, cutting said multilayered strand bymeans of said cross-cutting device, to sever a multilayered stack fromsaid strand, such that said leading end of said multilayered strandforms a leading end of said multilayered stack; and f) transferring saidmultilayered stack directly into said dispenser.
 2. The method accordingto claim 1, wherein said tapes have a width of between 5 and 40 mm. 3.The method according to claim 1, wherein said administration forms arein the form of a sheet.
 4. The method according to claim 1, wherein saidadministration forms contain at least one of: therapeutic, cosmetic, andfood-technological products.
 5. The method according to claim 1, whereinsaid administration forms have a weight per unit area between 10 and 50g/m².
 6. The method according to claim 1, wherein said dispenser is madeof a plastic or cardboard.
 7. The method according to claim 1, whereinsaid dispenser is a sealing bag.
 8. The method according to claim 1,wherein said dispenser is a two-piece dispenser with a drawer-shapedbottom part and a top-part.
 9. A method for the production of individualadministration forms, arranged as a multilayered stack, from individualtapes, comprising: a) arranging said individual tapes into amultilayered strand having a leading end; b) shifting said leading endof said multilayered strand substantially into a pre-opened dispenser;c) after shifting said leading end substantially into said dispenser,cutting said multilayered strand by means of a cross-cutting device, tosever a multilayered stack from said strand; and d) transferring saidmultilayered stack into said dispenser.